The Barrel Organ

User Review

The Barrel Organ

When the sky glowed on a Summer's eve
A thousand coloured bulbs on a Greenwich village green
All the fun of the fair, Oh please take us there
Where you are the star, heard loud from afar

A sort of early computerisation
This perforated sheets of cardboard creation
A whole orchestra, A concerto of your own
Of clarinets of violins of flutes and trombones

You're found at Skating rinks, pleasure gardens and piers
Accompanying sideshows and roundabouts
we hear ...

"Roll up, roll up, hold tight take your seats"
Oo the mobile wonderland with its whistles and tweets
The cries of happy fair-goers mingling with your music
The roar of the rides jingling with the unique

After the war, you're never heard of at all
But just a few notes can whisk us back
To an earlier simpler age ...
Then you vanished as if by magic

AUTHOR OF THE MONTH

Gabriela M. was born in Europe and presently lives in the United States where she is a university professor. She published three novels in her native language. In 2017 she started writing poetry in English. Since then her poetry has been published in various journals and newspapers. Her favorite poets are the symbolists and the surrealists, and her favorite novelist is Lawrence Durrell. She is a fluent speaker of three languages. She spends her time teaching, researching, leading a university-wide organization, working on her novel, and writing poetry. She mostly spends her vacations in Miami, Southern California, and Southern Europe.
Christina Schwarz, the author of the New York Times bestseller Drowning Ruth, after reading Gabriela M’s poetry manuscript stated:
“With lush language and lavish imagery, Gabriela M. evokes a fantastic world ripe with emotion.”

POST OF THE MONTH

February: He’s left you a wishbone on your pillow. You’re not sure what to do with it so you stick it between your ribs, feeling the sharp end shift with every move, scraping against the aorta. You hold your breath while sleeping and do not stir as the dreams pass by like headlights, colliding into the mist.

May: You pull out your teeth as not to hurt him anymore. He says your silence is ugly and suggests you keep your mouth open.
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